A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety device for vehicles, and more particularly to a safety barrier for passenger carts with an open cabin.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Along with a growing population of golf players, golf course accidents have become more frequent, especially golf cart accidents. Golf carts can lead to a variety of accidents like passenger falling out of moving golf carts, or cart collisions. Despite their boarding convenience, golf carts are commonly unenclosed and lack proper rider support through rough terrain or steep slope, which can be found in many golf courses today. Because the golf carts are made for club premises and not for street driving, they have been free of safety restraint requirements or protections that make them vulnerable to risks. If a cart path has such steepness, sharpness and narrowness that require a driver to take a sharp turn, chances of serious accidents become high resulting in incurable injuries and even fatalities of the riders. Also, more and more children are playing golf and riding as golf cart passengers on a golf course and the current safety equipment is not well suited for smaller passengers.
For the sake of riding comfort, there were suggestions to close the open sides of the golf carts. U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,610 to Howard represents a custom designed door system for golf cart-type street vehicle to modify an open golf cart to a street legal version with an enclosure top. However, a practically simple safety means is not yet available to retrofit in the current cabin design of golf carts. Also, no suggestions have yet been made to provide an automatic safety means for golf carts where the passenger's weight switches a side safety barrier.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a safety bar barrier for unenclosed vehicles including golf cart, which barrier is activated by a cart seat occupied by the passenger or driver. Another object of the present invention is to provide a safety bar barrier for golf cart having an optional privacy protection in addition to the novel transportation safety.